126 results for "Genetics"

Time, love, memory: a great biologist and his quest for the origins of behaviour

Weiner, Jonathan
The story of Nobel Prize–winning discoveries regarding the molecular mechanisms controlling the body’s circadian rhythm. How much of our fate is decided before we are born? Which of our characteristics is inscribed in our DNA? Weiner brings us into Benzer's Fly Rooms at the California Institute of Technology, where Benzer, and his asssociates are in the process of finding answers, often astonishing ones, to these questions. Part biography, part thrilling scientific detective story, Time, Love, Memory forcefully demonstrates how Benzer's studies are changing our world view--and even our lives. Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Beak of the Finch , brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.
Vintage Books 1999 300 pages

Not in our genes: biology, ideology, and human nature

Lewontin, Richard,Rose, Steven P. R.,Kamin, Leon J.
In this classic work, three eminent scientists expose and dismantle the claims that class, race, and gender inequalities are the products of our biological and genetic inheritances. Not in Our Genes provides a bold and biting critique of biological determinism and sociobiology. In refuting the claim that what individuals can and cannot do is fixed, in essence, by their genetic makeup, the authors offer an important reply to an argument raging far beyond the scientific world and widely affecting our society and our lives. This edition features a new introduction by the authors.
Haymarket Books 2017 322 pages

At the water's edge: macroevolution and the transformation of life

Zimmer, Carl
Everybody Out of the Pond At the Water's Edge will change the way you think about your place in the world. The awesome journey of life's transformation from the first microbes 4 billion years ago to Homo sapiens today is an epic that we are only now beginning to grasp. Magnificent and bizarre, it is the story of how we got here, what we left behind, and what we brought with us. We all know about evolution, but it still seems absurd that our ancestors were fish. Darwin's idea of natural selection was the key to solving generation-to-generation evolution -- microevolution -- but it could only point us toward a complete explanation, still to come, of the engines of macroevolution, the transformation of body shapes across millions of years. Now, drawing on the latest fossil discoveries and breakthrough scientific analysis, Carl Zimmer reveals how macroevolution works. Escorting us along the trail of discovery up to the current dramatic research in paleontology, ecology, genetics, and embryology, Zimmer shows how scientists today are unveiling the secrets of life that biologists struggled with two centuries ago. In this book, you will find a dazzling, brash literary talent and a rigorous scientific sensibility gracefully brought together. Carl Zimmer provides a comprehensive, lucid, and authoritative answer to the mystery of how nature actually made itself.
Touchstone 1999-09-08 290 pages

Genetic algorithms in search, optimization, and machine learning

Goldberg, David E.
This book brings together - in an informal and tutorial fashion - the computer techniques, mathematical tools, and research results that will enable both students and practitioners to apply genetic algorithms to problems in many fields. Major concepts are illustrated with running examples, and major algorithms are illustrated by Pascal computer programs. No prior knowledge of GAs or genetics is assumed, and only a minimum of computer programming and mathematics background is required. 0201157675B07092001
Addison-Wesley 1989 412 pages

Eve & Adam

Grant, Michael
While recuperating after a car accident in Spiker Biotech's lush San Francisco facilities, sixteen-year-old Evening Spiker meets Solo Plissken, a very attractive, if off-putting boy her age who spent his life at Spiker Biotech. Like Evening, he's never questioned anything ... until now. Solo drops hints to Evening that something isn't right, and Evening's mother may be behind it. Evening puts this out of her mind and begins her summer internship project: To simulate the creation of the perfect boy. With the help of Solo, Evening uncovers secrets so big they could change the world completely.
Feiwel and Friends 2012-10-02 291 pages

Cutting: understanding and overcoming self-mutilation

Levenkron, Steven
A seminal work on treating self-mutilation, revised and updated with illuminating case studies and newly available resources. Nearly a decade ago, Cutting boldly addressed a traumatic psychological disorder now affecting as many as two million Americans and one in fifty adolescents. More than that, it revealed self-mutilation as a comprehensible, treatable disorder, no longer to be evaded by the public and neglected by professionals. Using copious examples from his practice, Steven Levenkron traces the factors that predispose a personality to self-mutilation: genetics, family experience, childhood trauma, and parental behavior. Written for sufferers, parents, friends, and therapists, Cutting explains why the disorder manifests in self-harming behaviors and describes how patients can be helped.
W. W. Norton and Company 2006-05-30 275 pages

War against the weak: eugenics and America's campaign to create a master race

Black, Edwin
Publisher's description: History has recorded the horrors of ethnic cleansing, but until now, America's own efforts to create a master race have been largely overlooked. In War Against the Weak, investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller IBM and the Holocaust Edwin Black reveals that eugenics-sham science made up to justify ethnic cleansing-had an incredible foothold in America in the early twentieth century, and was in fact championed and funded by America's social, political, and academic elite. Even more shocking, Black traces the flow of ideas, research, and money from Cold Spring Harbor (Long Island) to Germany, in the process proving that it was America's eugenics program that gave Hitler the scientific justification to escalate his virulent anti-Semitism into all-out genocide. Black's team of dozens of researchers scoured scores of archives in four countries, unearthing some 50,000 documents, which collectively prove that the eugenics agenda was funded by esteemed philanthropies such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Institution; taught at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton; lauded by leading progressive thinkers such as Margaret Sanger, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Woodrow Wilson; and even sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court. With this kind of backing, American eugenics was quickly able to move beyond the theoretical in its quest to eliminate social "undesirables," getting cruel and racist laws enacted in 27 U.S. states. Ultimately, more than 60,000 Americans were sterilized against their will, and tens of thousands of others were institutionalized and/or denied the right to marry whom they chose. In the last year or so, governors from five states-Virginia, Oregon, California, North Carolina, and South Carolina-have apologized for their states' official efforts to wipe out their unwanted citizens. Surprisingly, the victims of eugenics weren't limited to the groups that have regularly suffered from prejudice in the U.S.; they were also the poor, epileptics, alcoholics, people who wore glasses, petty criminals, the mentally ill, and those deemed "shiftless." War Against the Weak details how those at the forefront of the movement worked tirelessly to establish the biological rationales for persecution, with the goal of continuously eradicating the "lower tenth" until only a pure Nordic super race remained. To achieve that end, eugenics contaminated many otherwise worthy causes, from the birth control movement to the development of psychology and IQ testing, and beyond.After Nuremberg declared eugenics to be genocide and a crime against humanity, the American eugenics movement did not disappear; it simply went underground, changed its name, and reappeared as "human genetics." War Against the Weak closes by bringing its analysis into the present day, pointing out that our increasing knowledge in the realm of genetic selection and gene-mapping is rife with opportunity for misuse.
Four Walls Eight Windows 2003 550 pages

Genetic Algorithms

David E. Goldberg
This book, suitable for both course work and self-study, brings together for the first time, in an informal, tutorial fashion, the computer techniques, mathematical tools, and research results that will enable both students and practitioners to apply genetic algorithms to problems in many fields: programmers, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, statisticians and management scientists will all find interesting possibilities here. Major concepts are illustrated with running examples, and major algorithms are illustrated by Pascal computer programs. Chapter concludes with exercises and computer assignments. No prior knowledge of Gas or genetics is assumed.
Pearson Education India 2013-02 412 pages

Familial breast and ovarian cancer: genetics, screening, and management

Patrick J. Morrison,Shirley V. Hodgson,Neva E. Haites
This publication surveys the profound and far-reaching ramifications that have arisen from the very significant advances in understanding the genetic basis of familial breast and ovarian cancer. Written by international experts from Europe and North America, this book provides the busy clinician with a contemporary and wide-ranging guide to the latest developments in diagnosis, genetics, screening, prevention, and management. In addition, the volume discusses ethical and insurance issues, distinct cultural differences in breast cancer and use of recently devised cancer genetics clinics. The different referral criteria and patterns to these clinics are detailed.
Cambridge University Press 2005-07-21 401 pages

The Real Eve Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa

Stephen Oppenheimer
About 80 millennia ago, out of one major exodus by migratory human ancestors from Africa—from Eritrea to Yemen (then to India and Australia, and eventually to Europe)—was the entire non-African world in all its racial and cultural diversity ultimately peopled; and to one prehistoric woman in Africa 150,000 years ago, all the peoples of the world can trace their genetic origin. So argues Stephen Oppenheimer in a groundbreaking volume that has stirred heated controversy among authorities in geology, linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology. Thoroughly researched and meticulously reasoned, with dramatic evidence garnered from recent advances in the field of genetics through DNA analysis, The Real Eve traces the evolution of modern humankind out of a common African ancestry—for again and again, Oppenheimer's extensive genealogical research, based on our gender-specific so-called Adam and Eve genes, has led him straight back to Africa. His conclusions have placed him in direct opposition to multiregionalists, who maintain that archaic human populations evolved locally, and have unsettled many long-established anthropological assumptions and cultural prejudices to provide a fresh perspective on the nature of the human destiny that all of us on planet Earth share. Color photographs are featured in this fascinating story of our human beginnings.
Carroll & Graf 2004 440 pages

Darwin for Beginners

Jonathan Miller,Borin Van Loon
The Beginner Books -- "Their cartoon format and irreverent wit make difficult ideas accessible and entertaining." -- Newsday aking us through the upheavals in biological thought which made The Origins of Species possible, Jonathan Miller introduces us to that odd revolutionary, Charles Darwin -- a remarkably timid man who spent most of his life in seclusion; a semi-invalid riddled with doubts, fearing the controversy his theories might unleash; yet also the man who finally undermined belief in God's creation. Along the way we meet a fascinating cast of characters: Darwin's scientific predecessors, his contemporaries (including Alfred Russell Wallace, whose anticipation of natural selection forced Darwin to publish), his opponents, and his successors whose work in modern genetics provided necessary modifications to Darwin's own work. Splendidly illustrated, this clever, witty, highly informative book is the perfect introduction to Darwin's life and thought.
National Geographic Books 2003-07-15 176 pages

Science And Human Values

Jacob Bronowski
Science and Human Values is a thought-provoking book by Jacob Bronowski that explores the relationship between science and human values. The author argues that science is not just a collection of facts and theories, but a way of thinking that shapes our understanding of the world and our place in it. He contends that science and human values are intimately connected, and that science has the power to transform our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.The book is divided into five chapters, each of which explores a different aspect of the relationship between science and human values. The first chapter discusses the nature of scientific inquiry and the role of imagination in scientific discovery. The second chapter examines the relationship between science and art, arguing that both are essential to our understanding of the world. The third chapter explores the ethical implications of scientific research, particularly in the areas of genetics and nuclear physics.The fourth chapter examines the role of science in shaping our understanding of human nature, while the final chapter discusses the implications of scientific progress for our future as a species. Throughout the book, Bronowski emphasizes the importance of human values in shaping scientific research and the need for scientists to be mindful of the ethical implications of their work.Overall, Science and Human Values is a thought-provoking and insightful book that challenges readers to think deeply about the relationship between science and human values. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of science in our lives and the ethical implications of scientific research.The Impact Of Science On Ethics And Human Values.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
Literary Licensing, LLC 2011-09 98 pages

Abraham's children: race, identity, and the DNA of the chosen people

Entine, Jon
Could our sense of who we are really turn on a sliver of DNA? In our multiethnic world, questions of individual identity are becoming increasingly unclear. Now in ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN bestselling author Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound human implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?" Entine weaves a fascinating narrative, using breakthroughs in genetic genealogy to reconstruct the Jewish biblical tradition of the chosen people and the hereditary Israelite priestly caste of Cohanim. Synagogues in the mountains of India and China and Catholic churches with a Jewish identity in New Mexico and Colorado provide different patterns of connection within the tangled history of the Jewish diaspora. Legendary accounts of the Hebrew lineage of Ethiopian tribesmen, the building of Africa's Great Zimbabwe fortress, and even the so-called Lost Tribes are reexamined in light of advanced DNA technology. Entine also reveals the shared ancestry of Israelites and Christians. As people from across the world discover their Israelite roots, their riveting stories unveil exciting new approaches to defining one's identity. Not least, Entine addresses possible connections between DNA and Jewish intelligence and the controversial notion that Jews are a "race apart." ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN is a compelling reinterpretation of biblical history and a challenging and exciting illustration of the promise and power of genetic research.
Grand Central Pub 2007-10-24 420 pages

A practical guide to human cancer genetics

S. V. Hodgson
This is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the diagnosis, clinical features and management of inherited disorders conferring cancer susceptibility. This new edition is fully updated with much more molecular, screening and management information. It covers risk analysis and genetic counseling for individuals with a family history of cancer, and also discusses predictive testing and the organization of the cancer genetics service. It aims to provide such details in a practical format for geneticists and clinicians in all disciplines. This book differs from others in the field in that it is a practical handbook for easy reference for a wide clinical audience. There is a large reference list for further details, as well as information about the genes causing mendelian cancer predisposing condition and their mechanism of action.
Cambridge University Press 2007 395 pages

Neural Darwinism: the theory of neuronal group selection

Edelman, Gerald M.
Already the subject of considerable pre-publication discussion, this magisterial work by one of the nation's leading neuroscientists presents a radically new view of the function of the brain and nervous system. Its central idea is that the nervous system in each individual operates as a selective system resembling natural selection in evolution, but operating by different mechanisms. By providing a fundamental neural basis for categorization of the things of this world it unifies perception, action, and learning. The theory also completely revises our view of memory, which it considers to be a dynamic process of recategorization rather than a replicative store of attributes. This has deep implications for the interpretation of various psychological states from attention to dreaming. Neural Darwinism ranges over many disciplines, focusing on key problems in developmental and evolutionary biology, anatomy, physiology, ethology, and psychology. This book should therefore prove indispensable to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in these fields, to students of medicine, and to those in the social sciences concerned with the relation of behavior to biology. Beyond that, this far-ranging theory of brain function is bound to stimulate renewed discussions of such philosophical issues as the mind-body problem, the origins of knowledge, and the perceptual basis of language.
Basic Books 1987-12-06 371 pages

The Prokaryotes: Prokaryotic Communities and Ecophysiology

Edward F. DeLong,Stephen Lory,Erko Stackebrandt,Fabiano Thompson,Eugene Rosenberg
Product Description The Prokaryotes is a comprehensive, multi-authored, peer reviewed reference work on Bacteria and Achaea. This fourth edition of The Prokaryotes is organized to cover all taxonomic diversity, using the family level to delineate chapters. Different from other resources, this new Springer product includes not only taxonomy, but also prokaryotic biology and technology of taxa in a broad context. Technological aspects highlight the usefulness of prokaryotes in processes and products, including biocontrol agents and as genetics tools. The content of the expanded fourth edition is divided into two parts: Part 1 contains review chapters dealing with the most important general concepts in molecular, applied and general prokaryote biology; Part 2 describes the known properties of specific taxonomic groups. Two completely new sections have been added to Part 1: bacterial communities and human bacteriology. The bacterial communities section reflects the growing realization that studies on pure cultures of bacteria have led to an incomplete picture of the microbial world for two fundamental reasons: the vast majority of bacteria in soil, water and associated with biological tissues are currently not culturable, and that an understanding of microbial ecology requires knowledge on how different bacterial species interact with each other in their natural environment. The new section on human microbiology deals with bacteria associated with healthy humans and bacterial pathogenesis. Each of the major human diseases caused by bacteria is reviewed, from identifying the pathogens by classical clinical and non-culturing techniques to the biochemical mechanisms of the disease process. The 4th edition of The Prokaryotes is the most complete resource on the biology of prokaryotes. Review From the book reviews:“This book … edited and written by great scientists covers essential contributions on different types of prokaryotic communities as well as on the prokaryotic functions in different environments. … This volume, as well as the whole series, should be available in every large scientific library.” (Ioan I. Ardelean, Bulletin of Micro and Nanoelectrotechnologies, Vol. 5 (3-4), December, 2014) About the Author Eugene Rosenberg, Professor of Microbiology at Tel Aviv University, Israel Edward F. DeLong, Professor at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering & Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA Stephen Lory, Professor at Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Erko Stackebrandt, German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany Fabiano Thompson, Professor at Center of Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Springer 2013 548 pages